'British Bill Gates' and his 18-year-old daughter missing after superyacht sinking (video)

Tragedy near Palermo: A luxury yacht sank during a storm, at least one person died, six are missing and 15 were rescued. Among the missing are a British millionaire and his 18-year-old daughter.

How tells euronews, a one-year-old girl was among those rescued. All the victims were taken to hospital. There were 12 passengers and 10 crew members on board. The 56-metre yacht Bayesian, worth 35 million euros, capsized and sank while moored at anchor during a violent storm that suddenly hit the area. The captain of the trawler, Fabio Cefalu, who witnessed the incident, says:

“We went down to the boat: the sailors had to go fishing. I saw flashes of lightning. I didn't like the sky. We stopped at the docks, waiting for the storm to pass. About five or four o'clock in the morning a waterspout hit Porticello. It was very scary in the harbor. The boat turned over on its side in the dock.”

The captain of a nearby vessel, Carsten Borner, told Reuters that during the storm he turned on the engine to maintain control of the vessel and avoid a collision with the Bayesian:

“We managed to keep the ship in place, and when the storm ended, we noticed that the ship behind us had disappeared.”

He said his team found several survivors, including three seriously injured people, on a lifeboat and took them on board before they could be picked up by the coast guard.

One of the survivors, Charlotte Emslie, said she momentarily lost control of her one-year-old daughter, Sofia, in the water but then managed to hold her amid the waves until a lifeboat appeared and they were both pulled to shore, Italy's ANSA news agency reported. Her father, James Emslie, also survived, said Salvo Cocina of Sicily's civil protection agency.

By the time the rescue effort began, which involved boats, divers and a helicopter, the weather had improved slightly. According to the Italian Coast Guard, the passengers on the British-registered yacht included citizens of the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom. Divers found the wreckage at a depth of 50 meters.

Among those missing are British multimillionaire Mike Lynch and his 18-year-old daughter Hannah. His wife Angela Bacares survived. Lynch, 59, is one of Britain's best-known tech entrepreneurs. The media has dubbed him “Britain's Bill Gates.” writes Reuters He co-founded Autonomy, which was later bought by tech giant Hewlett-Packard for $11 billion.

Lynch made his fortune in software. At his peak in 2015, Forbes estimated his net worth at $1 billion. For more than a decade, Lynch has been in litigation with Hewlett Packard, which accused the businessman and his top management of falsifying accounting reports after buying his company Autonomy in 2012. Because of this, in 2018, the US Department of Justice charged Lynch with fraud; in June 2024, following the results of the trial, Lynch was completely acquitted.

It later became known that the head of one of the world's largest banks, Morgan Stanley, John Bloomer, with his wife and daughter, and his lawyer with his wife were also killed.

The Coast Guard identified the sunken yacht as the Bayesian, built by Italian shipbuilder Perini in 2008. The aluminum-hulled luxury vessel can accommodate 12 guests and a crew of up to 10, according to yachting websites.

The ship left the Sicilian port of Milazzo on August 14 and was last tracked east of Palermo on Sunday evening, with a navigation status of “at anchor”, according to the ship tracking app Vesselfinder.

A Foreign Office spokesman said British officials were in contact with local authorities over the incident and were prepared to provide consular support to the affected Britons.

In recent days, Italy has been hit by storms and torrential rain after weeks of scorching heat, with floods and landslides causing widespread damage in the north of the country.

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